Sophomore leftfielder Abby King drove in eight runs on the day as the Forester softball team won 11-0 and 14-4 at Knox College on Sunday. Both games were called after five innings.
King was 3-for-3 in the opener. She doubled in the first run of the game in the top of the first inning and scored on another two-bagger by junior second baseman Jillian Rashid. Sophomore third baseman Alyssa Grimm singled in Rashid, stole second, and later scored on a double by freshman Haylee Sherlund. Senior pitcher Jenny McTague followed with Lake Forest's first triple of the season to complete the five-run rally.
The Foresters added to their lead in the second. Sophomore centerfielder Maria Zepeda led off with a base hit, stole second, and scored on a single by King. Run-scoring doubles by Rashid and freshman catcher Sydney Wyatt gave made the score 8-0.
King belted her fifth home run of the season in the third inning. Junior shortstop Kat Beall and Zepeda singled with one out and came around to score as King established a new career-high with five RBI in the game.
In addition to King's three-hit performance, Rashid and frehsman Quinn Jagodzinski were each 2-for-2 while sharing second base duties in the contest.
McTague limited the Prairie Fire to five hits in as many innings of work for her third shutout of the season and the 12th of her career.
Outs on the basepaths prevented the Foresters from scoring in the first two innings of game two, but the visitors exploded for 11 runs on 11 hits in the third. Freshman first baseman Riley Frisbie drove in the first run on a bases-loaded walk and King followed with a three-run double. Grimm also doubled home a run and Sherlund and Beall singled in two apiece. Zepeda doubled in Beall and later scored on a wild pitch to complete the team's highest-scoring inning of the year.
Run-scoring singles by Sherlund and sophomore first baseman Lucy Stahl and a sacrifice fly by Zepeda in the fourth extended the Foresters' lead to 14-0.
Knox finally got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth inning and added three in the fifth before Lake Forest recorded the game's final out.
Forester freshman Missy Dieckman-Meyer blanked the Prairie Fire for the first three innings to earn her team-high 11th victory of the season against just five losses. She allowed just one base hit while striking out three batters without issuing a walk.
Zepeda finished the game with three hits while six of her teammates added two apiece. Lake Forest's 17 hits in the contest are a season-high and the visitors batted .552 (32-for-58) in the doubleheader.
The Foresters are now 18-14 overall and 9-5 in Midwest Conference play this season. Knox fell to 1-23 overall and 0-16 in the league.
Lake Forest will travel to Ripon College for a doubleheader at 3:00 Wednesday afternoon before closing out the regular season against Illinois College in Janesville, Wisconsin, on Saturday.
